I am obsessed with collars. It all started when Miu Miu, back in its Spring 2010 collection, released these très chic collars with prints of birds, dogs, and cats on them. But really, my love was all heightened when the coolest girl alive - Tavi Gevinson - started wearing them. The beautiful part of collars is that they add impact to one's clothing in the subtlest of ways. Here's a look through some significant collars throughout history as seen through the lenses of the contemporary fashion scene!

​​NORTHERN RENAISSANCE

​ To say that fashion during the renaissance was too weird is an understatement, especially when seen through the eyes of today’s ~millennials~. What could we say? This was the time when man leggings (colloquially dubbed as “meggings”), codpieces, and wheel farthingales were deemed cool. As most fashion trends during this time dwindled from the royalty down to the commoners, the great Queen Elizabeth I popularized a fashion staple called the “Ruff collar”.​ The Ruff collar was usually made out of sheer linen or lace and it was usually mounted on a frame called the “supportase”. Yet on some occasions, the ruff collar was made to stand on its own by starching. The style of this piece of clothing often varied; however, the most common style of ruff collars were created by gathering an edge of a fabric to form frills and folds.

March Vogue 1963. Model: Hiroko Matsumoto. Photo by William Klein

Jean Patou, 1968.

1820-1850 spanned the years of what was called the “Romantic Period” – a time when expression of emotions and sentiments prevailed the lives of the people. The romantics hated classical styles and they preferred to break the rules. This was also the time when a interesting collar called the “pelerines” were popular. These collars looked like capes that usually spanned the upper-half of the arms The “fichu pelerine” was another variant of the pelerine. These looked like huge panels or lappets that covered the upper torso and was tucked under the belt.

THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

Miu Miu Fall 2015 Ready To Wear

Balenciaga Spring 2016 Ready To Wear

Chanel Spring 2016 Ready To Wear

​EDWARDIAN PERIOD

​​ It may be said that the Edwardian period, which enclosed World War I, had a huge impact on fashion, especially that of women, During this time, women were given “freedom” in the form of practical clothing and relatively shorter skirts that reached the ankle. However, high-boned collars, which offered a look of restraint on women, arguably showed a bit or irony to this idea. They were loved nonetheless. High boned collars were popular during this time and they were usually made of soft fabric. Jabots usually accompanied the wearing of this garment.

I’ve always thought that manuals and articles on “dressing your age” are not cool. I don’t like how they are so limiting of the choices of clothing one can wear and it gives a false justification of what a person of a certain age should look. Thankfully, we now live in an age where there are people who care less about prevailing “fashion rules” that almost every publication purposively impose on our minds. We are F R E E (although, we have to admit not entirely) to wear whatever we want! Today, there are a growing number of people who think independently with regards to the clothes they wear for the main purpose of pursuing their personalities. This week we discuss the ~cool~ trend of kids wearing their grandmas’ clothing, and grandmas wearing their kids’ clothing.

Let us start with the quintessential example of the age-defying, millennial granny Baddiewinkle (real name: Helen Van Winkle). Known for her youthful play on dressing, the face of Dimepiece has about 1.6 million followers on Instagram. She’s also had photos with Nicole Richie, has spoken on the phone with Drake, and has promoted the MTV VMA’s with Miley Cyrus. In an interview she had for Refinery 29, she described her style as “keeping up with the times”. More than that, Baddiewinkle’s way of dressing has always been an avenue for her to cope up with the difficulties of life. She has always been brave in doing the things she loves without regard for other people’s opinions on what old should look like. She does so whether in her famous tie-dye shirts or in her kanye-eating- ice cream sweatshirt.

Baddiewinkle as Kate Moss for GRIT creative

Several fashion campaigns by big brands have also featured mature women. There was Joan Didion for Celine, Cher for Marc Jacobs, and Linda Rodin for the Row.

On the other spectrum, kids are crossing age borders by dressing beyond their years. At the beginning of 2015, a lot of celebrities, including Rihanna, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kylie Jenner, and Zosia Mamet have dyed their hair grey. Marga Esquivel, an up and coming Filipino model in the international fashion arena, has been sporting this shade for quite some time. She has even been dubbed by Vogue.com as the model with “scene-stealing hair at Gucci Resort.” The 11 year old Tavi Gevinson is the most classic example of this phenomenon. In 2008, all of fashion looked towards the style prodigy as she wore the chunkiest of sweaters and the thickest of glasses. The industry’s fascination of Tavi grew out of her inclination towards clothes that drove away from her youth when everyone else wanted to look their youngest.

Marga Esquivel walking for Gucci

Style knows no age and knows no boundaries. If you want to wear anything, JUST DO IT!

Ever since I visited South Korea last year, I’ve been interested with their pop culture, especially when it comes to their youth’s fashion ideals. Walking through the streets of Incheon and Seoul, you’ll encounter a lot of great styles and outfits that are simple yet very eye-catching as well as fashion forward. But one particular thing that really caught my attention was how couples dressed. Korean couples seem to coordinate their outfits so well. I did some online research and found that couples usually match their wardrobes during special occasions such as their anniversary or Valentine’s Day. Some even do it whenever they go out together and that could be on a daily or weekly basis. Although, matching outfits are not just for couples in love, close best friends can also try to dress alike.

What’s cool about this trend is that it’s not really about couples wearing the exact same t-shirt or hat, but it’s more of creating a harmonious aesthetic whilst featuring identical or similar pieces to show public display of affection. In other words, it’s not just matching outfits, it’s more of matching styles. And to think that this sort of thing is very normal in South Korea fascinates me because here in the Philippines [and probably in some countries in the West], if you decide to match outfits with your significant other, people may deem you as “the weird and crazy couple that’s too obsessed with each other”. Unlike in South Korea, it’s such a natural thing to want to dress alike that no one would ever judge you if you do. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t match outfits just because you’re afraid of what other people might say! If you want to show off your relationship by being fashion forward, then go ahead! Odds are someone out there will notice how cute you guys look! Here is Refinery29’s short documentary on Korean Couples fashion:

Lyndsey Weir is an icon for admiration because of two things: one, she's an empowered woman who speaks her mind; and two, you will always see her wearing the same tough looking military jacket no matter what. This jacket of hers has become an integral part of her character and it is practically hard to know who she is without it.

Now allow me to digress a bit. In today's society where information via the internet practically travels faster than light, it is so much easier to get caught up in the ever changing tides of fashion movements. About a year ago, we had the hipster look, then the Harajuku girl image. Now, soft grunge, norm core, and sea punk are all the rage. These three movements are heavily influenced by media and relies fundamentally on 1990s appropriations. This week, Reinvent shall help you swim flawlessly with the tides of such movements and find your own handy "Lyndsey Weir" jacket by looking into clothing staples you must have in your wardrobe ASAP. Trust us, you will never get sick of these things.

the essentials

1. go-to casual bag - PREFERABLY a really big tote bag

As 21st century hoarders of goodness and delights of our preference, we deserve a bag that can hold all the weight of all these wonders. We need a bag that can hold all our cool school books to all our cool life stuff. If you are willing to invest, Mansur Gavriel is one of the best brands for dressy bags. Even Stylecaster featured this brand as one of the most viewed items of the year. Choose a go-to bag in your favourite colour! But if in doubt, black is usually a safe bet because it doesn't get soiled easily.

2. WHITE BUTTONED DOWN SHIRT

I find this one of my two most favourite wardrobe staples because it allows one to transform herself from this "pls take me seriously" professional to the "i am the most hardcore normal dresser out there". White buttoned shirts have a sharp, angular silhouette which gives you a very polished look without much effort. Buttoned shorts with angular collars also help in balancing out round faces.

3. Rubber shoes

Aside from the fact that rubber shoes are incredibly functional and durable, they also meet the essence of norm core, soft grunge, and sea punk - which is at its core a celebration of liberation through comfort in one's skin. Case in point: heeled jelly shoes in various colours go best with soft grunge colours, and sea punk sassiness. Athletic rubber shoes go in line with normcore aesthetics. New Balance, Nike, Adidas and Puma (Can we please take time to fan over Solange Knowles' collaboration with Puma???) are some of the go-to brands for norm core enthusiasts. High fashion collections such as the Chanel Spring 2014 and Fall 2014 showed off very trendy designs too.

4. A good eyeliner

Clothing does not only refer to the stuff we put over our bodies, but also the stuff we put on our faces. Finding a good eyeliner is a good bridge towards creating a certain beauty look that should enhance the outfit you already have on. Now how does the application of eyeliner apply to each fashion movement?

Normcore: It's all about drawing a line that complements the shape of the eye - meaning, creating a look that puts emphasis on the fact that no eyeliner has been worn, but the truth otherwise.

Sea Punk/Soft Grunge: A little flick/wing naturally works

5. A wildcard

Every genuine wardrobe isn't always made up of rigid inventories of basics like white shirts, blazers, heels, etc . To be frank, basics are boring if they don't come with pieces that are just so unbelievably outrageous. Every girl in the normcore/sea punk/ soft grunge generation has to have at least one item of clothing that's just so ridiculously weird it's brilliant! Example of a brilliant wildcard is finding a dress inspired by your favourite food chain.

At the end of the day, all these fashion movements are merely what you think and make of them. You don't always have to stick to a certain type of dressing just because everyone is. Just cover yourself in clothing that is representative of YOU! Remember: fads are fleeting, but you are not.

The trend nowadays is mixing different generations of fashion— say a 70s hairstyle with a 50s dress. As much as retro is loved by every girl, a new style is stealing people’s hearts; it’s running around in the crowd, and making its way to the front row. Presenting….Space fashion!

(André Courrèges – Space Age collection, 1960s)

It all started in the 1960s, when young fashion designers produced clothing to emphasize the love of people for outer space.

The most notable space-themed designer was André Courrèges, a French fashion designer known for his ultra-modern designs; and together with Mary Quant, they invented the miniskirt. Using the powers of plastic and metal, he created the Space Age collection: where clothes were made with rough geometrical shapes. Boots, goggles, and shades completed the look.

(André Courrèges – Space Age collection, 1960s)

As the style gradually increased in means of popularity, the amount of space-themed fashion designers increased as well. Pierre Cardin, known for his avant-garde fashion and production of cut-out dresses, was fascinated by the idea of space fashion. Using vinyl, silver fabrics, and large zips, a new collection was born. 'The clothes that I prefer are those I invent for a life that doesn't exist yet - the world of tomorrow.' -- Pierre Cardin Past, Present, Future, 1990.

In late 2008, the age of Lady Gaga was born. Lady Gaga, a famous singer not only known for her incredible songs, but for her incredible and out of this world fashions as well. Marko Mitanovski, a Serbian designer who creates various outfits for Lady Gaga, is known for bizarre outfits such as Maleficent-like gowns, while heightening the hair in the form of deer antlers to complete the look.

In today’s fashion, Steven B. Wheeler has created a beautiful and convenient jacket, called the Space Jacket. It serves as a tribute to NASA for being pure heroes. It’s highly comfortable, and not to mention very stylish.

“I've been a space geek for as long as I can remember. As a kid, my parents would wake me and my brother before dawn, and we'd go out to a field to lie on our backs and watch the Perseids meteor shower. The local planetarium was my happy place. There were space shuttles, stars, galaxies, and ringed planets printed on the sheets of my little twin bed. I saved up my allowance and lawn-mowing money to buy model rocketry kits from the local hobby shop. My favorite book, Carl Sagan's Cosmos, was given to me by my 5th grade science teacher, who, on the weekends, was also a pilot.” — Steven B. Wheeler on his Space Jacket

Do you ever just look back on how you were in elementary or high school and remember how ridiculous you dressed? Some might blame their parents for picking out their clothes back then but we all have made quite unique fashion choices back in the day. It’s safe to admit that we all kind of dressed weird in the 00’s, especially when every year there was a new trend in school. Everyone wanted to join in on the fads and soon enough, these trends became an epidemic to pre-teens and teenagers.

Here are some trends you might remember from your younger school days:

SHUTTER SHADES

Before the term “Jejemon” was even coined, shutter shades were what kids were raving about. They come in all sorts of colors and sizes. Kanye West probably started this trend but for real, who looks good in shutter shades except for Yeezus himself? Come to think of it, the sole purpose of these were just to make you look cool. Other than that, they’re pretty useless.

RUBBER WRISTBANDS

I am way beyond guilty with this trend. These were popular especially to those who were in a alternative/pop punk band phase. There’s nothing more fun than showing your love for your favorite band by wearing a nice ass bracelet with their name on it. What’s cooler is that no one cares if you covered your whole arm with these, that just makes you an even more hardcore fan.

JELLY BRACELETS

These bracelets were once popular in the 80’s but came back around in the early 00’s. Rumors quickly spread that these are actually what some call “sex bracelets” and every color had a specific meaning to them. And if someone else breaks your bracelet, you have to do whatever the color of it indicates you to do with that person. This is in no way true, though. In the end, jelly bracelets are just another fashion trend.

CHUNKY SNEAKERS

I have no idea why everyone had sneakers like these back then. Luckily, I never asked my parents to buy me a pair. I do remember kids showing these off whenever there was a casual day or whenever they were feeling extra rebellious and would wear them in P.E. class. It’s like the more outrageous your sneakers are, the better. I also feel like these are the kind of shoes people who dance hip-hop would wear. So either everyone was enrolled in a hip-hop class back then or everyone pretended to be.

HOODIES

These are still pretty popular today, but do you remember those ones with the really weird print on them? Even if your school didn’t have air-conditioning, you’d still try to make your hoodie work. And don’t deny that you always got excited whenever you had computer class, because that meant your newly bought hoodie, which you’ve been dying to show off, would somehow be useful for about 45 minutes of the day.

COLORED SKINNY JEANS

What better way to stand out than wearing bright colored pants? Some of you might remember forcing your mom to buy you tons of jeans in different colors whenever she goes to Divisoria or the department store. Of course with a pair of bold bottoms, you’d balance the outfit out with a white or black plain top, and with what shoes? Your chunky shoes from Zoo York, of course.

First things first: Resort 2015 was a fiesta of defined silhouettes, eye-catching colour choices in either subtle doses or abundant presence, and classic prints redefined for the modern era. Garment cuts varied between skirts and shorts to the knee while pants were designed to the ankles. One thing's for sure, London designers are craving for new measures of creativity that astounds and delights the woman today. Trends present in this European fashion capital coincides with the other major capitals as well, making the whole season a cohesive conglomeration across all places. However, there is still that rare, unexplainable touch that these London designers offer in the industry that sets them apart. It's still a mystery to me, surely. Scroll down, and you might just discover what that "touch" exactly is.

Neons and loud prints

Stripes

Floral Cutouts

Knee Length bottoms

Suits

Okay so lets clear things out: Harajuku is basically this unbelievably fantastic district in Japan where Japanese teenagers rebel, so to speak, when it comes to clothing themselves. Harajuku started to take form around the time of World War II, when some Americans (military and civilians) sheltered at a so-called Washington Heights. About this time, the Japanese were eager and curious to explore a new culture.

Harajuku is the ultimate haven for trendsetting individuals and many artists have been greatly inspired by the arts shown here. Timeout.jp describes it as the “mecca for kawaii” (kawaii: meaning cute). Individuals who showcase their style dress in different genres, however the most prominent of such are the Lolita, punk, and gothic styles. Pop culture serves as a huge component of Harajuku streetstyle as well, and the conglomeration of the different nods in culture in an outfit translates to genuine Harajuku dressing.

Within Harajuku is a place called Takeshita Dori. Numerous clothing stores and businesses of other ventures, such as restaurants, line this pedestrian-only strip. The best part of it all is that most of the items are incredibly affordable and unique! Sundays are when Japanese youth gather at Takeshita Dori in expression of their fashion sense.

Omotesando, which is also found in Harajuku, is described to be this road leading up to the Meiji Jingu shrine. Omotesando is somewhat the opposite of Takeshita Dori since the stores lined on this road are of the more expensive ones. (eg. Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and the like) Travelchannel.com has said this area is being “compared to Paris’s Champs-Elysees”.

Fruits magazine and Tokyo Fashion.com are the best sources of Harajuku street style photos. These media platforms regularly capture the inner essence of fashion, even if their photos are merely set in the usual urban background.

How should I dress up to look like those in the Harajuku district?

There are no predetermined rules as to how one should dress in the Harajuku district. More often than not, this district calls for unrestricted expression of one’s own individuality. One can exaggerate, over-embellish, dramatize, and even underplay the way clothes are worn. One thing should be clear: In Harajuku, no one will judge you for whatever you wear because people are expected to wear whatever they think is “kawaii” for them!

You may not be in the military or a jungle cat, but adding a bit of camouflage or animal print (leopard, cheetah, zebra, dalmatian, etc) to an outfit is still a great idea. As previously mentioned in the tropical prints article, the key to wearing nature inspired prints [or prints in general] is to not overdo it. This means that unless you're Iggy Azalea, it's best that you not wear a leopard print skirt + blouse + jacket + shoes combo. Some may say that this trend is a bit cheesy and tacky but if done right, it can be a a great #OOTD moment. So here are some ideas on how to stand out with your fashion…by blending in with nature!

Camouflage Print

A cool camouflage crop top paired with a pleated skirt and rocker chic accessories make a simple yet cute outfit. Tights are optional but they can add a bit of sophistication to the ensemble.

A clean white and denim outfit can be vamped up by adding a long camouflage print cardigan. Violå! Instant camo cute.

Green, black, and cream are the usual colors of camouflage but have an A+ fashion moment by wearing denim camouflage.

Animal Print

If you're not comfy with wearing the print, you can still rock it by wearing them on your feet! You can choose from flats, pumps, sneakers, and even boots.

An animal print top is a great way to wear this trend. Choosing something that's not too tight and in a different color can make it look casual yet fashionable.

A zebra print scarf is a great way to incorporate animal prints to your closet without spending a lot of money. You can wear it around your neck, as a head wrap, or you can even wrap it around your bag handle (Hermés style!)

If you need more outfit inspirations, check out the mini slideshow above!

xxVictoria Urrutiacollages made using polyvore.comall photos included in the slideshow are from what-id-wear.com